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Monday, March 30, 2015

what up? What up? This week has been freakin insane! We've been doing so much walkin and talkin this week! This week we were tired all the time and it was so easy to just collapse into bed for the night... that's a blessing of doing missionary work... it isn't hard to fall asleep cuz you're so gosh dang tired. Serving with Elder Browning is probably the closest i'll get to serving with Tanner. They are the kind of guys that you never know what they are thinking or gonna do next and you could never guess in a thousand years... there is no pattern to their randomness and they are always doing something hillarious... for example.... Friday all our appointments fell through and so we were walking around and talking to people all day.... and we took a later lunch than usual so we come in at 2 in the afternoon to eat and we do and after that i lay down on my bed to rest, with no intention of falling asleep, but i was so tired that i was gone in just a few minutes. Well the time comes for us to go back out and work.. so Elder Browning yells at me twice.. no response. So most people would come up and touch the bed or shake your leg or something... not Elder Browning... he walks out of the room and comes back with his guitar and starts playing a very mexican sounding song.... that woke me up. So i wake up to Elder Browning standing next to my bed holding his cherry red guitar playing music that requires him to be wearing a sombrerro.... that's what my life is like every day. Never a dull moment and its awesome. Friday we had interviews with our mission President and they went really good! This upcoming week Elder Browning and I have a meeting with him and some other missionaries and i'm super excited for that. Can't wait to kick it at our church for conference weekend! #thisisthelife!

Monday, March 23, 2015

Wassup wassup!? This week has been awesome. Its not a new feeling to get a new companion but it always is a crazy experience taking over and leading the area. My new companion is Elder Browning. He's from Pocatello, Idaho (the 2nd mormon state). He's been on his mission for 14 months and he's just been transferred from Tallahassee. He's super sick so i'm looking forward to our transfer! This week we also had Stake Conference. Stake Conference is a lot of fun. You get to see all the missionaries in the stake and all the members that you've met in the various areas, and President and Sister Smith came this time. They both spoke and you can tell the difference between someone who has experience and who doesn't when it comes to speaking. Pres and sister smith have a ton of experience and they are so fun to listen to. When President got up to speak it was so nice... there was just a peace that came into the room and you just feel like everything is gonna be alright. So Stake conference was really good! This week we're gonna be doin some traveling and goin to the northern part of our zone for a meeting up there. And now we be ridin in style.... the mission gave us a MINIVAN!!! BOOOYAAA!! That's it for now!-Elder Rogers

Monday, March 16, 2015

This week was full of miracles. On Friday we taught a family history lesson and invited these people to church (they had come the past week). They both came!!!! Super awesome! Later that day we were walking and as we had gotten close to our car to leave the area we were in a man drove up and asked where our service was and when it was and we filled out a card with all the information on it and gave it to him and he said "don't be surprised to see me come." We both kind of had the mentality of "ha ya okay.... never heard that before in my mission....." Well it was kind of a sign from God to us that we are lacking faith cuz he showed up for church on Sunday. He was a member that fell away 45 years ago and now is wanting to come back so that was another miracle! The last major miracle happened when i was on an exchange down in Theodore with Elder Payne. We were walking around an area and we saw some lil homies playin basketball so what do we do? Challenge them to a game. Well we walk a little further down the block with them to a house that the owners have told these kids previously that they could use their hoop whenever they want. So we play on and of course Elder Payne and i in our white shirts and ties destroy them..... (super humble right:)) Well we're playing and then we finish up our game just as these people in a mini van drive up to the driveway. So we stop and are headed out and i look at the back of the mini van and see on the back there is a University of Utah sticker. That's real strange down here. Definitely need to talk to them about the gospel if they are from SLC. So the driver and passenger get out and B line straight for the door and they were goin so fast that there wasn't anything we could do....they obviously recognized the white shirts and ties. Well then an older couple steps out of the van and calls us over and we talk with them. They were members from Atlanta. They had grown up in the church and in Salt Lake City before moving out to Atlanta. They were Ward Missionaries back home so they were more than excited to see us. We asked if their kids were members and they said no... thus the disappearance of the driver and passenger. But now we know! Anyways everyone i want you to know that our God is a God of Miracles and just as he did in the past he continues to show us them today! Have a great day and watch for miracles..... they are there no matter how small.-Elder Rogers

Monday, March 9, 2015

This week was a crazy week and we did a ton of travelling! Elder Riddle went to Tallahassee on Tuesday with the assistants and i took one of them with me on an exchange. Then Wednesday we all met up again at the halfway point in our mission for a meeting which was pretty much focused on how to manage and help others manage their stress.... cuz stress and contention is the most awful thing known to man. When you go into the MTC as a new missionary they give you a book called the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" book.... really what it should say is "How to manage the stressful life of being a missionary." Mostly everyone takes that book and either throws it out or hangs on to it until the end of their mission and then they throw it out. Very few people actually study it and i'll tell you what i've been studying that thing for nearly a month now because it is the bomb!!! So to all you missionaries if you haven't studied it yet.... get steppin! It'll change your life and make it a ton easier! Friday i was on an exchange with Elder Sahli, one of the missionaries in our zone. We had a blast and we taught some super awesome but really awkward lessons to some less active members of the branch up here. This week was super crazy with a ton of traveling and teaching.... unfortunately no baptizing this week but hopefully that's in the near future! Love yall!-Elder Rogers

Monday, March 2, 2015

This one is coming straight from my journal so it may be a little long but its worth it i promise!Saturday 28, February 2015"Peck < Pit bull"And another month bites the dust. Today rolls into 2nd place behind Ebola evacuation for the craziest experience of my mission. Elder Peck and i were together on an exchange up in Monroeville (his area). Well its the last day of the month and of course they don't have any miles left to use so we're hittin those bikes. So we're headed out to Brad & Adrianne's house (their investigators). Its about a 7 mile bike ride so we get peddlin. Well within 100 yards of their trailer craziness starts happening. Their neighbors pit bulls are out in the front yard and one starts barking and running at Elder Peck so we both peddle a little faster but don't think to much of it cuz panicking always makes things worse. Well it doesn't back down. Its running really close, like right next to, his bike and then it attacks. It latched onto elder peck's leg, right under his calf, onto his shin. Elder Peck kicks his leg and the dogs leg gets smashed in the spokes of his back wheel. Thankfully it let go and limped off. Their neighbor across the street was pulling in and saw the ending of it and he called us over so we go over and he helped us out a ton thank goodness because at that point i had no idea what to do. He called the cops and got us an ambulance.... oh i forgot to mention why. Elder Pecks shin now had 2 gashes in his leg....That's pretty much it but we went to the hospital and got to enjoy a nice couple hours in there and then we went home and chilled...... he was on morphine because they had to give him some rabies shots. Check out these pics!